Students Protest Tenure Denial At Wesleyan

MIDDLETOWN — Dozens of students at Wesleyan University marched through an administrative building Friday and loudly demanded that the university hire more minority professors.

As assistant professor Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie looked on, picketing students decried the university's decision not to grant him tenure. Administrators told Kerr-Ritchie, who has taught in the history department since 1992, that he lost his final administrative appeal last week.

Friday, students demanded that the university hire more minority group members and institute a more diverse curriculum. They referred to what they called ``a gaping discrepancy'' in the numbers. Members of minorities account for one- third of the students but just 13 percent of faculty, they said.

``Afro-American faculty have had a hard time getting tenure at Wesleyan,'' said Kerr-Ritchie, adding he was gratified to see the demonstration.

Students also complained of a stream of recent departures of minority professors and administrators.

One such administrator, Bruce King, told the campus newspaper in February that Wesleyan ``needs to find a better way to recruit and maintain minority faculty members.'' King, the associate dean of the college, has since returned to the Midwest for family reasons.

``This is a problem that's been going on for a long time and it looks like it's only going to get worse,'' said Sarah Leberstein, a senior from New York City. ``I don't think we'll be satisfied for a long time.''

University President Douglas J. Bennet said Friday that he is committed to a diverse faculty and curriculum, and that he hopes to diminish the gap that students highlighted.

``I think many of the departures are people simply changing career plans or getting other jobs or leaving,'' Bennet said.

The students also sought -- and later got -- a meeting with Bennet. The president later described that encounter as good. Leberstein characterized it as ``really annoying.''